Causeway Boulevard's northbound lanes between Jefferson Highway and Airline Drive to close at 7 a.m. Saturday

Beginning at 7 a.m. Saturday, the northbound lanes of Causeway Boulevard between Airline Drive and Jefferson Highway will be closed to traffic, after a recent bridge inspection found areas of severe corrosion under the northbound lanes, a highway official said Friday evening.

The road is in no danger of collapse, said John Guidry, bridge maintenance engineer for the state department of transportion. "We are just seeing some deterioration beyond the level we are comfortable with," he said.

Guidry, in charge of maintence of bridges throughout the New Orleans area, said the normal two-year inspection on Causeway was conducted last week. "That gave us some concerns, so we came back to clean up the areas and look more in depth," he said.

Knocking off the rust that normally builds in some areas revealed the deterioration, he said. On Monday, temporary shoring will be brought into the area and once that is in place, traffic will be able to resume on the northbound lanes.

In the meantime, traffic engineers were scrambling Friday evening to possibly put a message board on Causeway to notify drivers of the closure. Detour signs and barricades also likely will be used, he said.

Causeway is one of only a few north-south thoroughfares in Jefferson between Jefferson Highway and Airline. According to a state Department of Transportation website, an average of 43,780 vehicles travel both the northbound and southbound lanes of elevated Causeway in that general area every day.

Available detours include Central Avenue and Clearview Parkway, Guidry said.

Guidry said previous inspections of Causeway had not turned up any problems. In that case, inspections are schedule every two years. Depending on the condition of a bridge, inspections are held more frequently. For example, he said, the Twin Spans are inspected daily.

After the area with the deterioration is shored up on Monday, a contractor will determine the materials needed for a permanent repair, Guidry said. Once that repair is made - and just getting the materials is likely to take two to three weeks - the Causeway bridge will remain on the list to be inspected every two years.